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One of the most important attributes a restaurant can have besides great food, atmosphere, wine and cocktail list , is a very highly attentive trained staff. This goes without saying so why is it so few restaurants get it right out there? With the exception of the grand opening when all new staff are hired and there is an outpouring of information on how the Food and Beverage Operation functions, relatively little thought is put into staff training afterwards.

In fact , most employers would rather look for someone who has all the experience necessary upon hiring so very little time and expense is needed. Yes that would be the most desirable situation but the seasoned veteran can often bring their baggage and bad habits with them that could prove to be a detriment to the employer and co-workers.

What in fact should happen is the employer take on the enthusiastic person who is willing to learn and fit in right away. This employee is more apt to stay on longer and show more dedication.

Now what I see going wrong at this time is the enthusiastic server is not given the proper attention in their first few shifts. Now I have worked in restaurants where the training took place over a few weeks and others where the training was here is your section let’s see how you do.

Usually what the employer will do is stick the new person with one of the top waiters and have that person shadow them. This works well in the big restaurant chain where there is a number of employees to choose from. If it is a small family run restaurant look out because nowadays usually they are working at bare minimum staff levels which makes it hard for any waiter to train due to the fact they are running around themselves just trying to keep up. That’s why very few waiters like to train simply because they do not get anything extra for it and because of the competitive nature of watering a lot of information is not passed on. The new employee is scared to ask questions so a stalemate can result.

Quickly the new keen employee turns a little timid and is second guessing himself. What is so great about working here they may ask.

My idea on how to train a new person in the restaurant or bar is very simple. As a manager I will work closely with whomever I pair the new employee up with during the service and monitor what is going on. I do this for two reasons. One is I check that the waiter I paired him up with is teaching correctly and the other is I am watching the new one and see how he handles the pressure. If neither of them like that it is too bad. After all who is going to get the stuff from the fan if the new employee doesn’t work? I want them to hit the ground running and be ready as quick as possible.

As an owner or manager it is my responsibility that it works out. After all it is probably I that hired them. Too often the owner and manager will pass too much responsibility to the head waiter or bartender without so much as a follow-up until after service when the head waiter has to give his or her rendition of ” Another one bites the dust.”

Aside from the manager being present on the floor and not cooped up in their office there should always be training provided to everyone on a regular basis. Going over concerns in the dining room from service , presentation , interaction with guests , new drink or menu items , special guests , reservation policy , and the list goes on and on. A simple pre-shift meeting each night before service can handle most of these concerns. Let me ask how many restaurants have you worked in where there was any pre-shift meeting to keep everyone up-to-date on what is going on?

In conclusion , training should never end but keep on going. With most restaurants training ends after 2 days and never returns. The great restaurants keep it going.

When I was in my 30’s one of my goals was to become a Maitre’d or Restaurant Manager in a Fine Dining Restaurant somewhere in Canada.

I had just received a promotion on the cruise ship I was working on to Maitre’d from waiter in the dining room. It was going to be great! More money , using what knowledge I had learned from working in various dining rooms , and especially my 3 years up to that time working on the ships would serve me well.

Now what do you think my salary was going to be a month for being a Maitre’d?

It was going to be a mind boggling $50 a month. Yes you read that right , a measly fifty dollars a month. So why do you think I was so excited. It was because I was going to receive double the share of the gratuities that a waiter would earn. In other words if the waiters made $3,000 a month in gratuities I would make $6,000. A significant increase indeed and justified too as the added responsibility I would undertake would mean more hours and crisis to solve.

When I returned to Canada to work and started in management positions I noticed a big difference in take home pay. I was working longer hours at salary than the waiters were and making less money. I quickly reverted back to waiter and dismissed any idea of being a restaurant manager.

Now perhaps I should have stayed in Europe when I got off the ship to earn the big bucks that restaurant managers make over there and are still highly regarded by the population. But just having married with hopes of seeing my family down the road with little take home pay and long hours did not appeal to me.

So here I am approaching 50 and a waiter who earns gratuities and is able to make a decent living and a good lifestyle as well. By the way my wife is also a waiter and does well too. We both could have been managers in our own right.

Although I mention often of reaching for the top in the Hospitality Profession you have to do what you have to do in order to fit your own needs.

My barometer of whether to work for gratuities with a small hourly wage or a salary comes down to this , how much are you taking home each month? Is it enough? If not you may have to go back to waiting on tables or find a position where there is profit sharing or bonuses for the successes you bring to your place of employment.

If you are not willing to go back as a waiter then starting up your own business might be the best outcome.

As one person said to me a time ago , it’s not what you make but what you keep that makes the difference. I am happy I made the choice I did and that was to put aside my ego and do the right thing and make some money and see my kids.

People often ask me if it was difficult to work on a cruise ship and my immediate response is ” compared to what.” Because working on a cruise ship cannot really be compared to anything else.

First of all , your accommodations are all taken care of so you save a heap of money on rent and the money you save can be invested in real estate on land.A lot of crew members buy a house and rent it out while on the ship for 6 months at a time.

The food is taken care of while on board saving on that expense. The money you save can be used to buy souvenirs , sightsee when in port , or spoil yourself with a great lunch in a beautiful setting.

You need not worry about transportation as the ship will take you everywhere you need to go with taxis waiting at each port to take you to the sights. With 3-4 passengers the cost of using a taxi guide for the whole day is minimal. Also as well you need not own a car for the couple of months you are home as during your vacation you will most likely be traveling around visiting friends with whom you worked with or met on the ship.

On a cruise ship you will do things that you would not normally do on land working in a restaurant. Such as participating in the crew show and singing your rendition of “My Way” with a band behind you in front of a few hundred people or bungee jumping 50 metres in Phuket Thailand. Visiting the Lost City of Petra in Jordan , seeing the pyramids in Egypt , or having an overnight in St. Petersburg Russia and going out on the town are some of the other things one gets to do.

As well , getting as close to perfection one can possible get doing the same thing over and over again. That is providing 5* service to passengers who are just there to be pampered and treated like royalty for up to five weeks at a time. Demanding yes , but rewarding as well with income comparable to anything on land and better.

So in my opinion , if you want to do something you enjoy over and over again and live differently than most people ever will , try the cruise ship. I did and it still remains the longest time I have worked anywhere.

Now I am not saying everyone is like that. Some people, the 5 per cent of us just happen to have a stream of choices available to them at all times , and while the rest of us look on with bewilderment at how they can meet so many one after the other , we just want to hang on to the one we have because we may never meet anyone else afterwards.

First of all let me say the problem is not with the person. It is the lack of opportunities that are presented which is the obstacle. In office settings where the same people hang out there is the fear of gossip and what about if you break up and you still have to see one another. If you work alone the chances are few and far between as you work all day then come home plop on the couch and think about dinner. Or you may even be working past dinner.

Then when you are off there is the usual chores to do and before you know it you are back to work again. Especially now if you are single and the high cost of everything you probably have to put in more than your share of hours to get by as you have no one to share the expenses with. Everyone is busy , busy too.

All of the circumstances I mentioned as roadblocks to meeting someone occurred to me before I started working as a bartender back in the disco era.

I worked in factories , offices , warehouses , painted , drove truck. Just about every type of job someone with a high school education could do. The money I was making was not enough to wine and dine someone on a regular basis. In fact money was pretty tight. The two week cheque would come in and be gone. I am wondering if anyone out there can relate?

So when I started in the Hospitality Industry as a bartender at 21 years of age it was a real shock for me to discover two things that changed my whole outlook on life. One was I could make some really good cash and the other while doing so I could meet some really nice people. The people I worked with and got to know in a team environment. This was good because there was no pressure. You knew you could take your time and become friends first. After all , they were going to be there again the next night.

As well , the people at the other end whom you were serving were also potential partners. Although I made it a point not to fraternize with the regulars it was great practise to interact socially with them and improve my self esteem. The Hospitality Industry is great to develop your confidence because by interacting with others you learn so much about yourself too.

Now if you choose to work in another country you would not believe how popular you will become. In your own country there is nothing really different about you that sets you apart from others , but in another country just all of a sudden your different accent will attract huge numbers of interested people who want to know more about who you are and where you came from.

The easiest way to do that is work in the Hospitality Profession. I have explained how to do that in some of my other articles already.

I finally married at 37 years of age and am now going on 12 years this month and have two boys ages 6 and 4. It was definitely a great decision taking the Bartending course back then. If I didn’t I doubt highly I would be as happy as I am now. How about you ? Make a change if you want to. Even if you can only do it part time for now. Take a course to learn how to bartend and get out Saturday nights and make some money and meet new people. That is all it takes.

In a recent job market survey by the Canadian Food and Restaurant Association it states the Foodservice Industry employs over a million people or 6.3% of the total employment eclipsing other industries such as agriculture , forestry , pulp and paper , banking, and oil and gas extraction combined.

The young people entering the Hospitality profession are finally being rewarded financially as noted in the same survey with the first 8 months of 2007 citing an increase of 8.2% in average weekly earnings in Ontario as an example.So when at one time young people entered the profession to earn enough money to get by now they are looking at it as a career option.

With other former industries such as manufacturing that used to provide stability on the downswing because of changing demands and competition ,young people are turning to the hospitality industry because of it’s guaranteed growth.

Just a note that the number of times reported that an average Canadian household ate out for a meal or snack in 2006 was a staggering 536 times. This statistic will only increase in the future as the time constraints on families multiply.

The Foodservice Industry has always been looked at with some criticism in the past because of the long and unsocial hours one works.Not anymore , in fact many people love the industry because they work with other like minded people developing teamwork and social skills , meet new people everyday in most cases when they serve the guests , and then at the end of the day go home to continue with their other interests.
All in all far from a boring life.

Some other professions involve working with computers and corresponding via email and cell phones prohibiting the human need to socially interact face to face. Although these are worthy occupations and some indeed very well paying the link to cell phones and email often means the job even after one leaves the workplace never really ends at all as their availability is with them everywhere they go.How may cell phones do you hear ring now when you are enjoying a dinner in a restaurant?

Few people in the Foodservice industry a decade ago every achieved any notoriety at all but now that has completely changed.With the start of Food Networks and the internet young people now can look to someone who is a chef , restaurant owner , or innkeeper whom they can aspire to right in their living room making the profession inviting and glamorous at the same time.

With the high self esteem of Foodservice personnel everywhere due in part to the constant instant gratification one receives from another meal cooked to perfection , or the gratuity a waiter receives each shift , who wouldn’t dream of having their moment of glory in a show of their own or a cameo appearance in one.

One thing is for certain , the opportunities in the Foodservice Industry are limitless now and always will be for as long as there are people on this Earth there will always be someone willing to serve another.